Fans stay at home as Man U beats Celtic

For the third time this summer, two big-time European sides arrived in this city for an exhibition match.

And, for the third time, Toronto fans rejected the offering, realizing that triple-digit prices for tickets to see teams without their star players trotting around in summer kickabouts isn't worth their time.

Call it friendly fatigue.

Even though Celtic and Manchester United put on a lively display on the temporary grass at Rogers Centre, with United getting the 3-1 decision thanks to a Danny Welbeck winner, the seats were only half full. The main colour in the stands wasn't Celtic green or United red, it was Rogers Centre blue.

The official attendance was announced as 39,139, even though the 500 level of the Rogers Centre was almost empty and there were scores of empty seats at field level.

"I thought it was going to be full," said Celtic's Joe Ledley, the Welsh player just signed with the team before the tour. "But the fans that were here were brilliant, it was a great atmosphere."

"I'm not surprised because it's difficult to sell out a game when you're on the other side of the world," said Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

Ahem. On July 22, 2003, these two teams met in Seattle, another soccer-mad city, and played in front of 66,772. But, on that night, both teams played all of the stars at their disposal. United won 4-0.

The fans who did shell out for the game were ooh-ing and aah-ing when Dimitar Berbatov broke the scoreless deadlock 34 minutes in. Mame Biram Diouf barged up the left side of the field and played the ball to the top of the Celtic penalty area. Bulgarian striker Berbatov controlled the bouncing ball and then calmly slotted the ball into the Celtic goal. He didn't try to drill the shot, he knew he had time to place the ball behind helpless goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska.

With the Celtic's season beginning July 27 when it faces Portuguese side Braga in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, it couldn't afford to rest its World Cup players. Greek striker Georgios Samaras came in to play the second half. Four minutes after coming in, he nodded the ball into the back of the net, but was ruled offside.

United should have had a second goal in the second half from new signing Chris Smalling. After a deft cross from Darren Fletcher, Smalling only had Zaluska to beat, but the keeper dragged his foot and kept out the shot.

That set the stage for Samaras to tie the game on a penalty, and he placed it perfectly under the bar. Smalling was the victim, having hauled down Ledley in the area.

With 11 minutes left, Berbatov had the ball on the right side, and sent in an inch-perfect pass into the Celtic area which Welbeck slid to meet, and the ball rolled into the yawning goal.

"A marvellous piece of football from Berbatov," said United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who deflected rumours that Berbatov could be sold sometime soon.

"The criticisms of him, it doesn't come from our camp."

United's Tom Cleverley got a late insurance goal when his ball bounded off the back of a defender.

With ticket prices ranging from $75-$150, and United without any of its players who participated in the World Cup - including its biggest star of all, Wayne Rooney - the verdict on this game was in long before kickoff.

Toronto loves soccer. Toronto FC sellout after Toronto FC sellout proves that. The way this city went mad during the World Cup proved it.

But Torontonians want games that mean something.

Earlier this summer, Benfica and Panathinaikos played to a boring 0-0 draw in front of thousands of empty seats. AC Fiorentina beat Juventus 1-0 as the Italian teams walked around on the artificial turf at a less than half-full Rogers Centre.